Battlerite Royale Review

MOBA like it's 2018.

By James Duggan

The combination of a MOBA and battle royale sounds like an almost satirical welding of one hot genre to the next. But Battlerite Royale’s polished combat and clear understanding of both of its distinct parts make the strange concoction it serves up not only palatable but actually quite good, even in its current early access state. The largest drawback is a messy and confusing early game where the clarity and flow of Battlerite’s usually exceptional combat all but evaporates. But the unique and memorable experience it offers as things progress proves to be well worth the trouble.

Battlerite Royale’s large single map, Talon Island, is a respectable arena for the relatively small population of 30 players it currently supports. Points of interest like the Glimmering Woods and Temple Ruins feel thematically consistent with the high-fantasy setting and offer welcome visual variety. Familiar fare like loot chests and airdrops share the space with some less expected, but ultimately fun additions like portals, shops, and even resurrection shrines for fallen teammates in the duo mode.

Sound plays an important factor, too: Hearing the cork pop off a distance potion, for instance, sent me into a frenzied state of scouting to find the still-vulnerable guzzler before they could finish healing. While I never knew what was around the next corner, I also never felt the pre-combat anxiety or tension of other battle royale games as it proved relatively easy to escape from an unwanted duel. But even if you escape, losing a fight still hurts as a champion’s maximum possible HP is reduced after taking excessive damage, and that’s a problem only finite healing potions and shrines can fix.

Unlike Fortnite, PUBG, and most of their emulators, Battlerite Royale doesn’t start everyone on equal footing. Here, before the match begins you’ll choose a champion and purchase two of their set of seven abilities that will fundamentally distinguish you from your fellow combatants as far as stats and mechanics are concerned. The resulting asymmetry makes Battlerite Royale unique, but this disparity is far more pronounced than it should be early on in a match. That’s because champions feel like they’re balanced with their entire kits in mind, and any abilities you don’t buy before the match must be found or purchased as you play.

Learning the ins and outs of seven new abilities on the fly in a Battle Royale isn't easy, and neither the frustrating early game nor the standalone nature of Battlerite Royale are any help in this department.

Some, like Raigon and Jumong can skate by on their two starting abilities due to either one particularly versatile move, or just by virtue of being a ranged champion. Others, like Rook, simply lack the starting tools to deal with common tactics such as kiting, and therefore have a difficult time contesting early loot. Looting up to this baseline of performance on slow-to-start champions feels bad, like hunting for the wheels of a sports car one at a time while most of the opposition is riding motorcycles. The act is so trivial in most games, and so debilitating in the ones that it’s not, that I’m totally baffled as to why everyone doesn’t just start with their full kit of basic abilities unlocked. In PUBG, finding a single measly shotgun can be enough to take a well-equipped enemy’s life and loot in an instant. But in Battlerite Royale, besting an opponent is a far more lengthy and deliberate process, and as such champions with only half of their abilities stand virtually no chance against geared foes.

After all, the rest of the loot is interesting enough without the prospect of finding basic skills. Uncommon, rare, and epic abilities offer increased stats, and the legendary rarity even adds an exciting modifier. The legendary version of Sirius’s Crescent Gale, for example, turns the ranged missile into a boomerang that returns after being cast, effectively inflicting double damage along the way. Finding a legendary skill can alter the game plan when it comes to combat in a way that feels right at home in the battle royale setting. Fun and practical consumables like a deployable turret, summonable meteor, and even ninja hook that steals enemy loot present a variety of options no matter who you’re playing as. And last but not least, champions can equip up to four items that confer passive bonuses like increased health, damage, or even the ability to turn into a sheep upon receiving a fatal blow.

The act of anticipating an enemy's attacks and mercilessly dismantling their offense one ability at a time made me feel almost clairvoyant.

While the unexpected Sheep Medallion can certainly pull the wool over your enemy's eyes, the rest of Battlerite Royale is remarkably readable. Looting items and skills increase your champion’s power level, which is displayed prominently next to your HP in vibrant and corresponding colors for anyone considering picking a fight with you. Furthermore, items that directly impact combat beyond stats, like the snare-applying Hunter’s Quickblade, have a visual tell to keep things clear. Between the HP bar, power level, and ultimate meter, a single glance was almost always enough to inform my strategy. A difference of 10 levels or more represents a noticeable disparity in stats that you may want to avoid, but even that daunting advantage can be diced and dashed with some clever moves. In this way, Battlerite Royale’s MOBA-style combat is pushed front and center, which is a good thing, because after the rocky start matches become extremely enjoyable.

Whether landing a lethal skillshot, dodging an enemy ultimate, or punishing a premature counter with a devastating combo, Battlerite Royale’s late-game combat is packed to the brim with satisfying nuance. The act of anticipating an enemy’s attacks and mercilessly dismantling their offense one ability at a time made me feel almost clairvoyant. But things can go equally wrong just as quickly, and while most of the time I felt that my defeats were my own fault, a few elements of combat just seem unintuitive. Counters are a group of abilities that, when activated, do something when your champion is hit. Figuring out what does and doesn’t trigger these counters proved to be trial and error, and when the stakes are as high as they are in a battle royale, experimentation isn’t particularly fun. Just when I thought I had discerned a pattern I was proven wrong; for example, I thought ultimates simply didn’t trigger counters, but some – like Iva’s – do, and I learned that inconsistency the hard way.

While all 20 champions share a mix of mobility, crowd control, and healing or mitigation, no two play exactly alike. Which is especially impressive when you consider some of the more defining abilities from the original Battlerite like Sirius’s petrifying Lunar Strike, have been pruned out in the transition to Royale. Each champion’s kit theoretically possesses the tools to counter and ultimately outplay any other’s, but in practice, the concept of balance is a nebulous one.

Like a conventional MOBA, there are some clear front-runners. Namely Jumong, Jamila, Blossom, and Varesh have proved consistently difficult to defeat. But also like a conventional MOBA, you can find ways to make even “trash tier” champions work if you’re committed, as evidenced by a quick glance at the leaderboards. The most striking stat is not any one overpowered champion, but rather the percentage of playtime spent retreading familiar ground. The top 20 players in North America, for example, stick to their favorite two champions for an average of about 80% of their games, and my stats are exactly the same. That's because learning the ins and outs of seven new abilities on the fly in a Battle Royale isn’t easy, and neither the frustrating early game nor the standalone nature of Battlerite Royale are any help in this department.

There is a tutorial and versus AI mode, but you’ll spend more time tracking down the nine comically easy bots that spawn onto the full map than fighting them. Another deterrent from trying a new champion is the lack of an unranked mode. When I finally progressed from Diamond to the coveted Champion League the prospect of playing as anyone I wasn’t familiar with against real players felt like a one-way ticket back to Diamond. The original Battlerite’s playground mode would be a welcome addition to the Royale spinoff, but is currently absent. As it turns out, the methodical round-based repetition of Battlerite’s classic arena is the perfect environment for learning new champions and how they interact with specific opponents. But that is an entirely different game, and as such even though the champions appear similar, they’re not the same.

The Verdict

Battlerite Royale’s early access does an adequate job of balancing its cast of 20 champions against one another, but the effects of that balance simply aren't visible at the start of a match. This makes learning a new champion difficult, and the lack of a playground mode, AI difficulty scaling, and the standalone nature of the spinoff doesn’t help. However, what awaits later on in the experience is mostly sublime. Battlerite brings plenty of well thought out new additions to the trendy last man standing format, but none are more significant or of greater merit than it’s combat. The responsive and intricate MOBA-style dueling serves as a brilliant basic loop that is subject to the chaos, upsets, and triumphs of the battle royale setting. I thoroughly look forward to spending more time with Battlerite Royale during the road to release and beyond.

The effects of Battlerite Royale's champion balance are far from visible at the start of a match. However, the combination of fluid MOBA-style dueling and battle royale chaos that awaits later on is mostly sublime.RT